Florida Has a Python Problem, but the Fashion Biz Is Here to Help!

Florida has a big python problem—and the fashion industry wants to help. With as many as 100,000 of these scary snakes slithering around national parks and surrounding areas, officials are trying to find a way to reduce the population, and they are reaching out to the fashion community as one solution.

One designer, Camille Zarsky, told New York magazine that she's going to order Florida python to use on her bag collection that is priced from $500 to $2,000. “I feel good about it knowing that pythons are a problem in Florida,” Zarsky said. “You’re not taking an animal out of its own habitat. It’s actually a solution to an environmental problem.”

The magazine reports that "The Wildlife Commission is also considering reaching out to big European luxury houses to discuss ways to monetize the snake problem." Frankly, this snake overpopulation issue couldn't be happening at a better time, if you consider that python is a pretty big trend right now and will be even bigger this fall. We saw it all over the runways at New York Fashion Week, and now perhaps designers will source their python from Florida (to help control the population) instead of going to Asia.

One women quoted in the article, Jennifer Shapiro, says her anti-python friends are even coming around to her love of this snakeskin. “I have a few friends that are like ‘Really? You bought an actual python?’ And I say, ‘I’m helping the Everglades.’” Technically, her bag is sourced in Asia, but you get the idea.

A PETA spokeswoman said she supports finding humane ways to "remove invasive species," but she noted "the organization does not condone developing a leather industry or hosting bounty hunts."

Would you wear a python bag? If you're typically anti-python, would you try it if the material came from Florida?